Subconscious Constant Thoughts
by Foxtronic
Summary: Snippets of scenes and stories that are yet to come.
1. Ninja are Cats

Having ninja friends, she realized one afternoon, was a lot like having cats.

Big, territorial cats.

They came and went when they wanted to, they brought her gifts she had no idea what to do with and was always slightly queasy to receive, and they Did Not Like, when new people showed up around her.

So..

Cats.

And not the fluffy, domesticated kind either, oh no. They were wild cats. Jaguars, and Tigers stalked her early mornings while Lions and Cheetahs followed her around during the day. Most evenings she saw at least one Cougar and there was _always _a leopard in her tree at night.

She didn't even want to get started on the Dog metaphors!

At one point she'd been allowed to count 6 different ninja perched around her house. (_ And make no mistake, she knew she'd been allowed to count them. If they hadn't wanted her to know they we're there she'd have never seen them _.) All in different trees, some on neighbouring rooftops, and one enterprising ninja had used her clothes line like a hammock. ( _She'd been convinced that one was a Nara, though she had no idea how the Jonin commander could have the time to sleep on her clothes line. It couldn't be comfortable. He hadn't even taken off the clothes pins attached to it!) _

And it wasn't like she set out to befriend all the ninja in her village. She'd helped a few of them, a time or two. Talked to some others. Brought over food when she'd noticed someone coming home to a house that had been empty for months. Thanked them for their service to the village. She'd acted like a normal person!

But after each encounter she always seemed to add to her growing pile of strays. And it ended almost the exact same way every time! With her thanking them and the ninja in question staring at her with sharp, unblinking eyes. (_ That had been her first clue that all ninja turned into cats at some point in their careers. She'd seen that exact same stare on her sisters cats face, time and time again.) _

It had all started with Hatake Kakashi.

She'd just moved into a new apartment complex, her old one having started to feel to restricting. With all her neighbours constantly talking to her about when she'd be getting married and having children. She'd been a single woman for a good number of years by that point and had no intention of giving up her freedom. Her elderly neighbors hadn't liked that one bit.

Setting her up on dates when she hadn't realized she'd been on one, harping at her on what was proper for a woman her age, all of it. She hadn't been able to stand it after a while.

So she'd moved.

But in moving she realized she had a ninja neighbor. Not something she'd ever had to deal with before, being firmly civilian despite her childhood dreams. So she hadn't really known what to do. Normally you'd introduce yourself when you moved in but after the hassle her old neighbors had put her through she was leery of seeming to friendly.

She wouldn't have minded making some connections with the people she lived by but.. she _had _just moved. And she didn't want to have to move again if these people turned out it be just like her old neighbors.

So that night and many more after, she didn't talk or think about Hatake Kakashi. It was only months later when his apartment had been empty for some time that she learned he was most likely on a long term mission. No one knew for sure, being all civilians themselves but he hadn't been added to the Memorial Stone so that was really the only answer they had.

When she heard he had dogs she'd been worried. She hadn't heard any dogs barking and no one had went into the apartment since he'd left, but learning that the dogs were ninken eased her somewhat. Ninken were almost like humans in that they didn't need any help to live their lives. They were fiercely independent and able to unsummon themselves when they felt the need.

But she still made a promise to herself that she'd thank both Hatake and his Ninkin for their sacrifice for the village when they got back. It was the least she could do after being to much of a coward to go and introduce herself when she'd first moved in.

Finding out how many ninken Hatake had was challenging at best and close to impossible with her level of clearance (_ None _) for village information, at worst. But she was determined, so buying a surplus of bones was a must.

Just in case.

She also made a small plushy of his favorite (?) dog, (Puken? Kunkun? Pkun? No one had really known what the dog's name was exactly. Only that it was the one that travelled the most with Hatake while out in the open) a cute pug that unfortunately had one ear cross stitched incorrectly although she'd tried everything she could think of to fix it.

She hoped he liked it anyway because there really was no way she'd be able to hid it from a ninja. A civilian? Maybe. A ninja? There wouldn't even be a doubt they'd know exactly what was wrong with it, what it was made out of and how she'd come across it. She wasn't even going to try and hide it. Ninja paranoia was legendary after all.

Her time to met the famous Hatake came much sooner than she thought it would. A ring on her phone one morning had her answering it and being told that Hatake was back in the building and heading her way. She'd thanked the informant and hung up.

Grabbing all of her goodies she made sure to stand tall in the space between their doors patiently.

When he rounded the corner she all but hopped to his side, face friendly with it's normal cheerful smile.

"Hatake!"

He never missed a step, humming absentmindedly at her as she fell into step with him.

"I have something for you! To thank you!" She started somewhat nervously"

"For me?"

"Yes! You and your ninken" He wasn't walking very fast but his long legs more than made up for that.

His head cocks just slightly to the side, eyes never moving from his book. If she didn't know vaguely what ninja could do then she'd assume he wasn't paying any attention to her at all. As it was, she was pretty sure he could kill her in under a second if she so much as made a slightly threatening motion


	2. Ask no questions, I'll tell no lies

Bill froze, hovering meters off the ground he stopped moving entirely in a way that wasn't natural to this dimension. "What?" His voice, normally so chipper had dropped.

"I'm trapped here Bill, because of _you_." Dipper's voice was cold. Malevolent. Not something any of the gathered humans had ever heard from the small dream demon before, not even when Grunkle Ford had first appeared. "They were terrified of you. Absolutely hysterical at the thought of what you could, _would_, do to them. So they took the only thing they thought you might possibly care about, and they caged it like an offering."

Bill's body was paleing, washing out to a sickly pus colored yellow, his lone eye trapped on Dipper's gradually enlarging form.

"They came to me in the _**s̷̤̭̋̀̉͊ᴉ̴̧̼̯̻̀u̸͙̚ͅɐ̷̤̤̻̗̇̑u̴̙̱͉̎̾̊ᴉ̴̯͇̹͛̃**_ and they came in droves, Bill." Dipper's hands curled into fists."People we'd known all our lives came to me and forced me, so many hands, so much magic, into a **_ɯ̷͉͚̼͛n̴͕͎̈́͗ᴉ̴̞̦̤̭̤͌p̴̨̨̠̔͛̊͒̕o̶̳͋͐͛͛_** and shoved me out into the multiverse with _nothing_."

Bill started to shake and he screeched out, "What? No, no that's not what happened, that's not what you told me!"

Dipper snarled, "Of course that's not what I told you! What being wants to tell the thing they love, that loves them so outrageously that they would kill a whole dimension of powerful demons, that the entire reason they are without power, without hope is because of them?" The ground below the two gods shook, the sky flashed with green lightning, "Who was I to tell you, that the only reason I wasn't consumed by the things that live out there, that have teeth sharper than ours ever could be, that tear into your _soul_ like it's so much paper, was because I was lucky enough to hit the magical equivalent of the human lottery, just before they finished tearing me to pieces?"

Bill hunched down curling into himself, all he kept repeating was "no, no no no no-" The great Bill Cipher was practically screaming in denial at what his other half was decoding for him.

"Did you never wonder?" Dipper looked down to the town they were floating over, to the tiny form of Mable staring up at him in complete faith that he could fix this, "Did you never question?"

Dipper floated forwards to the much smaller Bill, hunched over into himself like that would somehow shield him from the words of the only being that could ever hurt him.

"I was so weak when you found me, Bill. I was practically colorless." Bill shuddered at the memory, "You must have known then, them trapping me here would have never done that to me. Would have never injured me so badly I couldn't call out for you."

Bill shook his body back and forth slightly, the litany of no's fading down into darkness at Dipper's tone. His hands covered his one eye, blocking out all sight.

"The void is cold, Bill." Dipper's voice twisted in agony, "It's cold, and hollow, and while we call ourselves gods and demons, there are beings out there that even you would be terrified to find." One of Dipper's large hands hovered over the other dream demons body, so ready to comfort, so ready to ensnare. "And they did this, my love, our family, our entire species, all in fear of you."

Dipper hand curled gently around Bill's quivering body. It would take so little effort to shatter this being he loved completely. So little effort for this to be over with for the humans down below him. But did he want to tell this truth to his-

His, always his..

He'd kept it for such a very long time though.

_Dream Demon,_

_One Facet of Alcor,_

_Other Half of Bill Cipher,_

_Found Brother of Mable,_

_Pine Tree,_

_Kid-,_

_Bro-bro-!,_

_Little dude,_

_Dipper._

_Protector of this small, insignificant dimension he found his home in, _was so very tired of keeping something that wasn't his.

"Why do I always have to be the one to pay for your mistakes?"


	3. Extreme Family Bonding

Tsuna skidded to a halt when he heard a sharp cry from a familiar voice behind him, he turned from where the others were still running to see Amila on the ground. She had tripped and skinned both her knees badly. Her bright green eyes were filled with tears and her hand was stretched out towards him.

"Tsuna!"

Tsuna looked behind him at the others who were getting farther and farther away from them and back to Amila (and Xanxus' men who had been chasing them all), "Tsuna, _please _!" She screamed out terrified.

With an explosive growl he ran back towards where Amila was on the ground, he grabbed her hand and the back of her dirty dress hauling her up with all his strength. Even before she got completely to her feet Tsuna was already turning around dragging her with him.

"Gotcha"

Large, rough hands grabbed him under the armpits and forced him up into the air. He swung his legs back and forth to try to mule kick the body behind him, "Amila, run!" He howled out, his body twisting and turning desperately.

"Come on little brother, can it. You're already caught. " A familiar voice said steadily behind him, "Now. Look at your little, turncoat friend. She seems pretty alright to me."

Tsuna growled and tried to head butt behind him but all he got for that was a brusque shake of his entire body. "Go on, look." Physical hands, ones that couldn't be from the person holding him stable in the air forcibly turned his head to look at where Amila had been. He struggled but it was useless. He wasn't strong enough.

Amila was standing where she'd been when Tsuna had ran back for her, but instead of struggling like Tsuna was, she was on her own feet and wiping down her dress from the dirt it'd acquired when she fell.

Only, Tsuna realized with a sinking feeling, she hadn't fallen. She hadn't tripped. He bit his lip as hard as he could and his struggles slowed down enough until he stopped entirely, but he couldn't stop the way his eyes traced Squalo as he moved over to the small girl who wasn't even half his size. Amila looked up with a sweet smile when Squalo stopped beside her and waited patiently.

"Boss?" Squalo asked distastefully. He didn't look at the girl beside him, or the child his boss basically had in a headlock.

"Go ahead." The voice said in his ear and hauled him up slightly higher.

Squalo sighed and ran a hand down his hair in annoyance but reached into his jacket anyways. He pulled out a bag clinking with coins. He passed it to the girl almost unwillingly but let her snatch it from his hand when it got close enough to her. Amila turned away from everyone and counted out the coins and notes that had been in the bag.

Tsuna swallowed harshly, and Xanxus huffed un-amusedly beside his ear.

Amila turned with a hundred watt smile, her dirty face shown with her happiness. It would have been adorable if that look didn't make him physically sick to his stomach. Squalo grimaced and Xanxus growled, pulling him slightly farther away from her. It was strange how everything had been flipped. Before he'd been trying to protect her from these two men, but now it was like they were trying to protect him from her.

She was looking straight at him.

"Thanks so much, Tsuna!" She grinned at him, "If you hadn't told me The Varia were looking for you I'd never, ever been able to get off the streets!" She tried to skip forward towards him, but Squalo grabbed her before he could even get half a step, Tsuna flinched back into Xanxus' hold, and the man in question pulled him back even farther. Amila looked confused but she didn't struggle against the hold, "I just wanted to thank him.."

Squalo glared down at her and jerked her back, "Are you stupid or what?" He jerked his head backwards and spoke directly to Xanxus. "We done with her Boss or what? I'm getting sick of the smell of greedy coward."

"Hey!" The girl protested indigently.

Xanxus made some motion that Tsuna couldn't see and Squalo nodded. He dragged the girl away none to gently and she waved at Tsuna cheerfully as she went. "Bye, Tsuna!"

Tsuna watched her go. Soon, not even moments after Squalo had started moving her, the girl he'd spent the last two months with was pulled around a corner ally and out of his sight.

Xanxus sighed explosively when Tsuna slumped down in his arms, a completely dead weight. "Come on, kid. Let's get to the car." He started to haul Tsuna's limp body around and towards a back alley road where Tsuna could see a black car idling. This really had all been planned. Right down to where Amila would 'trip' and Tsuna would come to help her.

Tsuna let himself be carried towards the car like a kitten being picked up and moved by its mother, he never said a word. Just kept reliving that moment when he'd decided to turn back for her. Why had he done that? He could have just kept going, he _should _have just kept going. But he hadn't and this is where he'd ended up.

When they got to the car door, another man opened it. He was plain looking, the normal Mafia guy you'd expect to see in a movie. Nothing like the circus that'd been chasing Tsuna for the better part of two years. Xanxus tossed him in and instantly slid in after him, blocking the door from that side. Tsuna had a half second thought of trying the other side but Squalo angrily jerked the door open, clambered in and shut behind him.

Xanxus rapped on the divider and the car lurched forward smoothly. Xanxus relaxed back into his seat behind Tsuna, his arm coming up to drape across the back of the seat and one hand coming down to clamp onto the nape of his neck. He spoke over Tsuna's head as the fourteen year old scowled down at the immaculate floor. He scuffed his dirty shoe agnst it, just to mess it up a little.

"The little harpy run?"

Squalo crossed a leg over his knee and also relaxed significantly more than he'd been outside the car. "The second we were outta sight she slithered outta my hold like some type of eel and took off down the street." He said, "There wasn't much of a point chasing after her since we got what we came for, so I let her go."

Xanxus grunted but didn't sound to displeased. More annoyed than anything. "I can't stand trash like her. Little cretin would sell her own mother out if it meant more money."

Squalo rolled his eyes and actually looked at Tsuna for the first time since he'd gotten in the car, "What do _you_ think about that, baby boss? Still think you can trust people like her?" Squalo mocked him, with the words he'd said almost two years ago," _'I don't need your stupid Family! I'm perfectly fine with my family right here!' " _Squalo pushed him with his shoulder playfully, like a leopard engaging a kitten. Tsuna's eyes burned with tears but he refused to look up and give them the satisfaction of it.

Xanxus laughed and pulled Tsuna closer to him in what could be called a hug if it wasn't so violent. His other hand also came up to Tsuna's chin to force his head up gently (for him anyways.) Tsuna meet red eyes like the devil with a glare on his face and Xanxus laughed even louder.

"You knew we were gonna catch you at some point, little brother." He grinned a proud, bloodthirsty grin, " I'm just impressed you lasted so long against us all. It was impressive for someone not yet Quality."

Tsuna's eyes narrowed, "You only caught me because you tricked me. You never would have otherwise. It was a dirty trick because you all weren't good enough."

Xanxus' grin sharpened, "A dirty trick still got us you, I'd wager that's a good enough reason as any to use them more often."

Tsuna tried to jerk away from Xanxus hold but the man just clamped on tighter, letting Tsuna roll around between him and Squalo as he tried to escape. The two watched amusedly as he almost made it to the floor before Xanxus' jerked him back up.

Tsuna screamed in frustration, "I'm not apart of your Family! Lemme go!" He scratched at Xanxus' wrist and snapped his teeth at Squalo when the man went to force him to sit in the seat properly.

"If you wanna stay on the ground then fine." Xanxus said, still amused. With the hand wrapped around the kids nape he let him drop but not move. He was on his knees, between Xanxus' own and glaring up at the bigger man. "But kid, no matter what you say or what you do, your part of the Family. " His eyes trailed curiously from Tsuna's wild hair to his familiar face. One Xanxus' had seen on the Manor walls so many times, he'd had to do a double take when he'd first caught a glimpse of Tsuna. "Looks like that don't lie."

Xanxus' smiled down at the little rage kitten below him, if it wasn't for those golden eyes and that delicate face it would have been like looking into a mirror with the hate that was pouring off of him, "And you'll find, little brother," Tsuna snarled at him, "Family's the only thing you can ever really trust."


End file.
